J.C. Leyendecker: pioneer of gay subtext in art and aesthetic embodiment of the Niche staff’s collective dysphoria.

[…] a lot of gay artists had to use what I call the “palimpsest technique.” Palimpsest refers to the fact that parchment used to be so expensive they would have to paint it over to write something new, and that is the essence of semiotics, the text that is hidden beneath the visible text. Especially in literature, in anything having to do with gays, it’s been done to perfection. You have to hide it, not expose it like you can today.

The look we’re all going for.

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Speaking of subtext: it’s never a bad time to revisit Sontag.

Camp taste is a kind of love, love for human nature. It relishes, rather than judges, the little triumphs and awkward intensities of “character.” . . . Camp taste identifies with what it is enjoying. People who share this sensibility are not laughing at the thing they label as “a camp,” they’re enjoying it. Camp is a tender feeling.

A tender feeling!

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This empathy test is lousy with confounds and unexamined biases but it’s also kinda fun? Let me know how you do.

This one is “panic.”

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I accidentally discovered that Bertie Wooster’s rubber ducks were likely historically inaccurate. I feel just terrible.